Wes Iwundu walked the quiet halls of the Orlando Magic front office and tried to not look too out of place. It was late in the day, past the time when most workers would have gone home, but the lights were still on and there were still a few people at their desks. He felt very conspicuous and had no idea how often the players themselves visited the office area, but if he was questioned, he planned to use the excuse that he wanted to meet with the Vice President of Scouting.
Wes didn’t know who the VP of Scouting was or if even such a position existed. But he figured that even the flimsiest excuse would be convincing enough, because, after all, what kind of NBA player would just wander around in a cubicle farm unless they had specific business to attend to?
The true goal of Wes’ visit was simple: to locate the conference-room whiteboard which contained on it the accumulated knowledge of the organization when it came to free-agency and trades. Since the whiteboard, which was covered from top to bottom with names of players written in black dry-erase marker (some with accompanying notes), was the canonical information source for the Magic leadership, it would be trivial to reshape their thinking and guide their future transactions.
Finally, after fifteen minutes spent walking around on three different floors of the building, Wes found what he was looking for. In a desolate meeting room far away from any cubicles or offices was the mythical Whiteboard of Knowledge. Checking once to see if anybody had followed him or noticed him, Wes ducked into the room without turning on the lights. He took out his phone to illuminate the proceedings, and, in no time, had located a marker whose color perfectly matched that of the writings already on the board.
There was a column for current Magic players. Wes found his name near the bottom of the list. It was not annotated in any way, but that was about to change. Trying his best to match the handwriting style of the unknown executive who had originally written all of their names, Wes added a parenthetical after his own: “(do not pick up team option – Wes deserves to play for a team that can win)”.
Capping the marker with satisfaction, Wes admired his handiwork. Nobody would ever realize that those new words had been written by anybody other than a knowledgeable, high-level team employee.
“See ya, suckers,” he said under his breath before cackling madly to himself. However, as he turned to leave, he came face to face with somebody unexpected.
“Give me that marker,” Aaron Gordon said, slipping his ski mask off his face. “If anybody asks, we never saw each other. Got it?”
Wes nodded. “Got it.” As he left, he saw Aaron making his own addition to the whiteboard.